New York Today: High School Regrets

Class is back in session for more than a million public school children today.

For high school students, especially, this is a time of self exploration, growing pains, and, for those of us reflecting back, some regrets.

We recently asked our readers to share some of the things they wished they had done differently in high school. Here are a few of their regrets:

“What I wish I could’ve done differently: Listen. Be more aware of the potential signs of depression or bullying. I don’t believe I was an aggressor, but I participated in my fair share of it, so I wish I was more self aware, too.”

— Sachin Arora, 29, Astoria, Queens

“If I had to do high school over again, I’d leave aside the ice cream scooping and McDonalds customer service jobs for work that helped me figure out my longer term career, if at all possible.”

— Suzanne Grossman, 42, Maplewood, N.J.

“I regret not pushing harder for the one thing I loved: dance. If I could go back, I would tell my younger self to have courage, take risks and believe in myself because that’s what it takes out in the world.”

— Annette Herwander, 37, Washington Heights

“I would have wanted to have sex and try pot. Back then, programs like D.A.R.E. and ‘abstinence only’ scared me into obedience.”

—Joey DeGrandis, 32, East Village

“I regret lacking the wisdom to focus on academics, rather than perpetually searching for an elusive party. Of course, the scope of career options available to young women has exponentially changed since then. Perhaps my regret should relate to the decade of my birth.”

— Susannah Sterling, 74, Leesport, Pa.

“I often wish that I had not dropped out. Later in life, I obtained a G.E.D. and a subsequent college degree through night classes at a community college. That was the long and difficult path, studying at night and weekends while married and with a child at home.”

— Billy Ford, 67, Cornwall, N.Y.

“I wish I gave more attention to my brothers and sister. I feel like we missed each other during this time in our lives and now we spend our time trying to make up lost time.”

— Heath Mayhew, 35, Astoria, Queens

“I would have been bolder with my fashion and my ability to just be myself. Something about teenagers being close to each other makes them hypersensitive to judgment. I wish I hadn’t cared!”

— Lindsey Dartsch, 25, Woodside, Queens

Here’s what else is happening:

Weather

You might want to pack an umbrella alongside that lunchbox.

Today starts off cool and drizzly, mostly before 9 a.m.

But overall, the weather gets an A for effort: By afternoon recess, it’s looking mostly sunny, with a high of 78.

In the News

• The sale of Starrett City, the largest federally subsidized housing development in the country, raises potential conflicts of interest for President Trump and his family, who are partial owners. [New York Times]

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The longtime owners of the Starrett City housing complex plan to sell the development for more than $850 million.CreditJohnny Milano for The New York Times

• As Senator Robert Menendez’s trial begins, the debate about what constitutes a permissible friendship with a politician comes to the fore. [New York Times]

• Lunch at public schools in the city will be available free of charge to all 1.1 million students beginning this year. [New York Times]

• Charges were dropped against Pedro Hernandez, the Bronx teenager who spent a year on Rikers Island after he was accused of taking part in a 2015 shooting. [New York Times]

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Mr. Hernandez after hearing that the charges of gun possession and assault were dropped.CreditGregg Vigliotti for The New York Times

• Craig Carton, a co-host of the sports talk radio show “Boomer & Carton” on WFAN, was arrested in connection with a ticket-reselling scheme. [New York Times]

And Finally...

Stephen Fybish, left, a New York City weather legend.CreditTodd Heisler/The New York Times

New York lost one of its great weather experts last Wednesday.

Stephen Fybish, an amateur climatologist and frequent contributor to New York Today, died. He was 80.

Mr. Fybish once described himself as an “avocational weather researcher and climate historian.” Others have called him the “weather hoarder” or a “walking weather almanac” for his meticulous collection and dissemination of weather data and events.

“Mr. Fybish’s encyclopedic knowledge of historical New York City weather data — and his faith in the predictive power of that data — were the stuff of legend among reporters in the city who had cause to write about the weather,” said Andy Newman, a Times reporter who helped launch New York Today in 2013.

Nick Gregory, the chief meteorologist for Fox 5 NY, told The Times, “I never knew him to be wrong once.”

James Barron, another Times reporter, remembered the many phone calls from Mr. Fybish — and the times when he dialed Mr. Fybish.

“Those were pre-emptive strikes,” Mr. Barron said. “I was trying to keep him from insisting that a weather statistic in some story I wrote was wrong. The statistic would have come from the National Weather Service. The Weather Service could make mistakes. Mr. Fybish didn’t.”

Mr. Fybish, a native New Yorker, discovered his love of weather during an exceptionally cold winter in 1976-77.

Later, he began keeping a journal of weather data. And over the years, he shared his knowledge with us.

Thank you, Steve.

New York Today is a morning roundup that is published weekdays at 6 a.m. If you don’t get it in your inbox already, you can sign up to receive it by email here.